RE: [MATHEDCC] Why Johnny can't read.

Jerry Thornhill (jerry_thornhill@sw.cc.va.us)
Tue, 26 Oct 1999 13:46:09 -0400

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-mathedcc@archives.math.utk.edu
> [mailto:owner-mathedcc@archives.math.utk.edu]On Behalf Of John
> Chamberlain
> Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 1999 9:28 AM
> To: MathEd list
> Subject: Re: [MATHEDCC] Why Johnny can't read.
>
>
> At 09:42 PM 10/25/99 -0400, Bret Taylor wrote:
>
> >...Not a single person in
> >the class could explain to me what the problem was actaully asking. Even
> >when I asked them if they had ever tried to move a piece of
> furniture (or a
> >ladder or a bed frame) out of a room into a hall could they see this was
> >that type of problem, they had difficulty seeing it.
>
> Bret, it very well could be a reading problem. However, it might
> help a great deal if you were to dissolve the abstractness of the
> problem by actually bringing in a 12-foot 2" x 4" and take the
> whole class out to a hallway and get them to measure the angles,
> measure the clearances, the 2x4 length, the hall width, and so on
> and THEN try to solve the problem (maybe first with scale models,
> then graphing the measured values, and finally, algebraically).

Or if you don't want to drag that 2x4 around, you might visit

http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/3/applications.2/index.html

where there is a Java applet to help visualize this problem. Because it's
interactive, you can help students visualize why a problem that asks for a
maximum really requires finding a minimum. I think that even many good
students are initially confused by this.

The above is only one part of the great information and applets that can be
found at

http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/

Regards,

Jerry

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